Baron de Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat) (1689-1755)by Olga Prokopchuk and Meghan Adams
"In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of laws."
~Montesquieu The Spirit of Laws Bk.VIII,Ch. 3~ Bk. VIII, Ch. 3
Charles-Louis de Secondat, was born on January 19th,1689 at La Brède, near Bordeaux. He was well educated in law, received a degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708, and went to Paris. On the death of his father in 1713 he returned to La Brède to manage the estates he inherited, and in 1715 he married Jeanne de Lartigue, with whom he had a son and two daughters. In 1716 he inherited a title from his uncle, Baron de La Brède et de, and of à Mortier in the Parlement of Bordeaux, which was at the time chiefly a judicial and administrative body. He was one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment.
Role in the Enlightenment
He gained fame in 1721 with his Persian Letters. Usbek, one of the fictional characters in Montesquieu's work of the Persian Letters, reflects Montesquieu's own fixation with the difference between European and Non-European societies, the advantages and disadvantages of dissimilar systems of government, the rules of authority, and the proper use of law. The Persian Letters criticized the lifestyle and liberties of the wealthy French as well as the church. He began to spend more time in Paris, where he frequented salons and acted on behalf of the Parliament and the Academy of Bordeaux Political. However, Montesquieu's book On the Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, was his most famous work. It outlined his ideas on how government would best work. The Roman Catholic Church placed The Spirit of the Laws on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1751. Scientist Donald Lutz found that Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government and politics in colonial pre-revolutionary British America, cited more by the American founders than any source except for the Bible. Montesquieu's work remained a powerful influence on many of the American founders, most notably James Madison of Virginia, the "Father of the Constitution". Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" reminded Madison and others that a free and stable foundation for their new national government required a clearly defined and balanced separation of powers. Big Idea
Montesquieu argued that the best government would be one in which power was balanced among three groups of officials.
He wrote book Spirit of the Laws (1748), in which he advocated a separation of powers amongst the branches of government. He thought England - which divided power between the King (who enforced laws), Parliament (which made laws), and the judges of the English courts (who interpreted laws) - was a good model of this. Montesquieu called the idea of dividing government power into three branches the "Separation of Powers." He thought it most important to create separate branches of government with equal but different powers that utilized legislative, executive, and judicial power for which all the bodies of government were bound by rule of law. That way, the government would avoid placing too much power with one individual or group of individuals. He wrote, "When the law making and law enforcement powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty." According to Montesquieu, each branch of government could limit the power of the other two branches. Therefore, no branch of the government could threaten the freedom of the people. His ideas about separation of powers became the basis for the United States Constitution.
Reflective Role Of The Enlightenment
Montesquieu's reflective role of the Enlightenment was to show the necessity of a branch of government that reflected the society of the people, their customs, and differences. Laws are "the nessessary relationships deriving from the nature of things."
Baron de Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat) (1689-1755)by Olga Prokopchuk and Meghan Adams
"In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of laws."
~Montesquieu
The Spirit of Laws Bk.VIII,Ch. 3~
Bk. VIII, Ch. 3
Charles-Louis de Secondat, was born on January 19th,1689 at La Brède, near Bordeaux. He was well educated in law, received a degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708, and went to Paris. On the death of his father in 1713 he returned to La Brède to manage the estates he inherited, and in 1715 he married Jeanne de Lartigue, with whom he had a son and two daughters. In 1716 he inherited a title from his uncle, Baron de La Brède et de, and of à Mortier in the Parlement of Bordeaux, which was at the time chiefly a judicial and administrative body. He was one of the greatest philosophers of the Enlightenment.
Role in the Enlightenment
He gained fame in 1721 with his Persian Letters. Usbek, one of the fictional characters in Montesquieu's work of the Persian Letters, reflects Montesquieu's own fixation with the difference between European and Non-European societies, the advantages and disadvantages of dissimilar systems of government, the rules of authority, and the proper use of law. The Persian Letters criticized the lifestyle and liberties of the wealthy French as well as the church. He began to spend more time in Paris, where he frequented salons and acted on behalf of the Parliament and the Academy of Bordeaux Political. However, Montesquieu's book On the Spirit of Laws, published in 1748, was his most famous work. It outlined his ideas on how government would best work. The Roman Catholic Church placed The Spirit of the Laws on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1751. Scientist Donald Lutz found that Montesquieu was the most frequently quoted authority on government and politics in colonial pre-revolutionary British America, cited more by the American founders than any source except for the Bible. Montesquieu's work remained a powerful influence on many of the American founders, most notably James Madison of Virginia, the "Father of the Constitution". Montesquieu's philosophy that "government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another" reminded Madison and others that a free and stable foundation for their new national government required a clearly defined and balanced separation of powers.
Big Idea
Montesquieu argued that the best government would be one in which power was balanced among three groups of officials.
He wrote book Spirit of the Laws (1748), in which he advocated a separation of powers amongst the branches of government. He thought England - which divided power between the King (who enforced laws), Parliament (which made laws), and the judges of the English courts (who interpreted laws) - was a good model of this. Montesquieu called the idea of dividing government power into three branches the "Separation of Powers." He thought it most important to create separate branches of government with equal but different powers that utilized legislative, executive, and judicial power for which all the bodies of government were bound by rule of law. That way, the government would avoid placing too much power with one individual or group of individuals. He wrote, "When the law making and law enforcement powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty." According to Montesquieu, each branch of government could limit the power of the other two branches. Therefore, no branch of the government could threaten the freedom of the people. His ideas about separation of powers became the basis for the United States Constitution.
Reflective Role Of The Enlightenment
Montesquieu's reflective role of the Enlightenment was to show the necessity of a branch of government that reflected the society of the people, their customs, and differences. Laws are "the nessessary relationships deriving from the nature of things."